WoW Classic name reservations, MDI and 15th Anniversary News, AzeritePowerWeights, Mekkatorque, and eyes opened speculation! All this and more on this week’s For Azeroth!

WoW Classic 

  • Name reservations went live on Monday, with three characters being reserved per account
  • FAZ will be on Pagle (PVE) and Whitemane (PVP), but no actual guild plans have been finalized 
  • Joce is playing as Joce on both servers, an Alliance Paladin on Pagle and a Horde Hunter on Whitemane
  • The streamers largely worked together to create characters on both sides of Faerlina, freeing up other servers for folks who wish to avoid potential streamer impacts on their servers
  • Blizzard posted a quick start guide for new players on their website with everything you need from minimum PC specs to racial starting zones, skills, transportation, grouping, etc 
  • New realm added: Stalagg – PvP – Eastern Time

MDI is Back

  • Summer season has started, with four spots at the BlizzCon finals up for grabs
  • Broadcasts run from Aug 10 through Sept 14
  • Full details can be found in the Viewer’s Guide on Worldofwarcraft.com

15th Anniversary News

  • Players have been reporting a free level 100 character boost on inactive accounts, expiring October 30th, 2019
    • People do not seem pleased that those who have remained subbed get nothing
  • 15th Anniversary gear has been added to the Gear Store

8.2 Hotfixes

  • The Queen’s Court
    • Fixed a bug with Frenetic Charge which would cause Aspect of the Turtle to not correctly mitigate the damage and knockback effects.
  • Za’qul, Harbinger of Ny’alotha
    • Reverted a change that caused Mind Tether to deal excessive damage to the linked target.
  • Island Expeditions
    • The bonus amount of Azerite granted to players with the Azerite Residue buff has been increased based on Island Expedition difficulty.
    • Azerite Residue increases in potency more quickly based on Island Expeditions difficulty.
  • Developers’ note: As higher Island Expedition difficulties award larger total amounts of Azerite, we want to ensure that the reward for engaging and defeating the enemy team remains relevant, especially in PvP Islands.
  • Class Buffs
    • Death Knight (Frost, Unholy), Warlock (Destruction), Warrior (Arms); damage of all abilities increased by 5%
  • Class Changes
    • Rogue (Outlaw), was too powerful in M+ due to Blade Flurry and Keep Your Wits About You, both nerfed
    • Shaman (Restoration) buffed across the board with healing increases and mana reductions to their single target spells as well as Healing Rain
  • Player versus Player
    • All Tier 3 Azerite Traits (such as  Resounding Protection and Impassive Visage) are now reduced to 20% effectiveness in PvP (was 50%).
    • Developers’ notes: We’d like to see sustained damage become a greater source of pressure in Arena and Battlegrounds, but the passive healing providing by these Azerite Traits offsets much of that damage. We think that by decreasing their impact, we’ll see greater pressure on health and mana pools going forward.
  • Death Knight
    • Two honor talents were nerfed to offset the buffs that were meant to increase PvE performance
  • Mage
    • Temporal Shield duration was decreased to refocus mages on movement and control as their defensive tools

Community Resources/Add-ons

AzeritePowerWeights

  • Creates an overlay in both your Azerite Armor pieces and your Heart of Azeroth UI to show you your best possible trait and essence selections
  • You can create your own scales, import from others, or use the default
  • Blood Mallet (which we have talked about in the past) supports exporting to the addon, but be careful because you may not be using the talent build that they are
    • You can sim yourself and create your own scales but it’s not easy. I tried all day and couldn’t figure it out
    • Also doesn’t seem to take into account trait stacking
  • The tooltip will show you your current score, maximum available score, and max possible score, as well as how close you are to unlocking the center trait, even before you select any, making this like Pawn for Azerite gear